If I accept the state of the universe as you've written it: Offer a payment plan, appealing to the debtor's better nature to get some of this retired immediatel

If I accept the state of the universe as you've written it: Offer a payment plan, appealing to the debtor's better nature to get some of this retired immediately without causing him heartburn due to a large cash shock. Get that payment plan in writing, to keep everybody on the up and up. Collect payments in a timely fashion, embrace warmly when it is repaid. In the world we're actually living in: the reason that "a firm demand on paper followed by legal proceedings" is the civilized way of raising the temperature is that some people are momos and are perfectly capable of constructing an inner world in which they don't have to pay, absent the external world forcing them to.